Scarcity

December 3rd, 2009 Posted in Approaching, Close Sales, Creating Sales Opportunities, Increasing Sale Value, Making Sale, Offline Marketing

Scarcity

This is where you “take away” your prospect’s chance to get your product or
service. You may have heard of the “take-away close” which is used in selling.
It’s very effective. You present your case to the prospect and when he begins to
slobber so bad because he’s got to have what you’re selling, then you let him
know that there’s really not that many left — or, he’ll have to wait 6 weeks to get
it unless he orders today, or any number of other techniques for “taking away”
the benefits that he so badly desires.

In your ad or letter tell your prospect that what you’re selling:

• is available only for a limited time;

• is available at a discounted price for a limited time;

• is available with all these free bonuses for a limited time;

• was produced in small quantity . . . “We’ll be out of ‘em by the end of this week”;

• there are only 15 seats available at the workshop;

• there were only 150 copies printed, and if they want one they’d better act now, etc.

By creating scarcity, your prospect begins to think, “Gee, I’d better buy this
before it’s too late!”, which is exactly what you want them to think.

Here’s an important thing to remember when using the scarcity tactic: the
scarcity must be real, and it must be perceived as real. In other words, be honest,
and appear to be honest. Scarcity only works if you’re using it honestly. So
whatever approach you take to positioning your offer with scarcity, make sure the
scarcity is actual, factual and real.

The scarcity tactic is an incredible motivator when used correctly. It’ll push
your prospect over that last “bump” and get them to take the action you’re after
now. Think about it . . . if you don’t get your prospect to take action right now,
while he’s got your ad or sales letter in his hands, do you really think you’ll get
him to buy “later”? The fact is that the majority of prospects will put off their
buying decision. They want to think it over . . . talk it over with their spouse,
boss, a good friend, or whoever. Some prospects feel that they want to take some
extra time to “think about this” and then, planning to come back to it later, will
forget the whole thing . . . and you’ve lost the sale.

Think about it! How many times have you done the exact same thing? You
read a letter that makes you want to buy, but the writer didn’t include some
powerful reason to get you to act now . . . they didn’t include any scarcity tactic.
So, you set the whole thing aside – and after a while it gets buried on your desk in
your “pile of stuff to get into”. Don’t feel bad, we all have this pile! Then you
forget all about it. It happens all the time and the scarcity factor helps overcome
this.

Buffer